New Suns GM Brian Gregory, owner Mat Ishbia’s shared past is impossible to ignore

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PHOENIX — Mat Ishbia may have foreshadowed this two weeks ago when he addressed reporters at the Phoenix Suns practice facility, promising change after a season of failed expectations.

The Suns owner emphasized the importance of an organizational identity. Like the Pittsburgh Steelers, he said. Everyone knows what the Steelers are about, how they compete. And then:

“Or even my old team, Michigan State basketball,” Ishbia said. “You kind of know what you’re going to get when you talk about Michigan State basketball. What is Phoenix Suns basketball?”

That answer is not yet clear, but Ishbia has taken a significant step, hiring the man whose main responsibility will be creating such a vision. Ishbia on Thursday promoted Brian Gregory as Phoenix’s new general manager, the biggest step in a front-office revamp triggered after the most disappointing season in franchise history. Gregory replaces longtime GM James Jones, who was moved to a senior advisory role.

It’s an interesting move, given Gregory’s background. Hired last June as Phoenix’s vice president of player programming, Gregory has 11 months of NBA training. With the Suns needing to change their roster, he has experienced one NBA Draft, one summer of free agency, one February trade deadline.

Gregory, 58, has spent the bulk of his career in the college game. He was head coach at (2003-2011), Georgia Tech (2011-2016) and South Florida (2017-2023). He also worked two stints on Tom Izzo’s staff at Michigan State, and that’s what will get the most attention in this transaction.

Since Ishbia assumed ownership, many in the desert have joked that if Izzo were 10 years younger, he’d already be coaching the Suns. (Even today, with the Suns looking for a head coach, you can find the Michigan State coach’s name on candidate lists.) But with Izzo not an option, Ishbia may have opted for the next best thing, shifting to a basketball style and culture he knows best.

It’s risky.

Brian Gregory has spent most of his career in the college coaching ranks, including two stints at Michigan State, Suns owner Mat Ishbia’s alma mater. (Bob Levey / Getty Images)

Gregory is a basketball lifer. After college, he joined former Michigan State coach Jud Heathcote’s staff as a graduate assistant. He was there for five years under Heathcote and for the first season under Izzo. He was the restricted-earnings coach then, the third guy on the bench, unable to recruit on the road. He built his way up.

From 1996 to 1999, Gregory worked as an assistant at Toledo and Northwestern before returning to Michigan State. During this second stint, Gregory had a heavy hand in recruiting the program’s biggest stars. He also met Ishbia.

A walk-on guard, Ishbia was in his second year when Gregory arrived, working as the scout-team point guard. In a 2023 interview with The Athletic, Gregory said he coached Ishbia like he was an All-American because Ishbia had to know everything about Michigan State’s opponents. He recalled the walk-on watching film with coaches, studying the best players on the Spartans’ schedule. (Indeed, during Ishbia’s final season, a local beat writer asked him to choose the Big Ten’s all-conference team and then asked how Ishbia would defend each player.)

“He had to know every call,” Gregory said. “He had to know what the point guard likes to do and what the other four guys liked to do. And every third day, it was something new. The amount of time and attention to detail and the pride he took with the other four guys — he was the leader of that.”

Michigan State won the national championship that season. Asked what he recalled most about that year, Gregory didn’t hesitate: “I say this all the time, but that team never had a bad practice. Ever. That’s why we won 30-some games.”

This can be applied to the Suns as they look to form an identity. Too often under dismissed coach Mike Budenholzer, the Suns, who had the NBA’s most expensive roster, lacked the intensity and energy needed to compete. Sometimes it took just a few minutes to realize the Suns weren’t mentally engaged, and when the head goes, losses follow.

Ishbia said he was embarrassed and promised change — then he promoted the guy in the building he was most comfortable with, the one with minimal NBA experience. For a guy known for making major splashes (trading for Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal), it was an amazing reversal.

It’s possible Gregory has impressed during his short time here and shown he’s ready to become a GM. It’s possible the Michigan State connection is overblown. But it should not be dismissed.

In 2023, Ishbia was asked about his role as a leader, and how the hands-on approach he modeled in his mortgage-lending business could work in the NBA. The Phoenix owner brought up Izzo as the standard.

“If you ever watch basketball, what happens at timeouts?” Ishbia said. “College and NBA, coach walks out to the free throw line, and the assistants circle him and they talk for 30 seconds and then he goes and talks to the players. Watch Michigan State. They’re running in. Izzo’s grabbing this guy. He’s talking to this guy. He’s drawing up plays. He’s in the weeds. He doesn’t have to say, ‘Hey, did we run that right?’ He knows every detail.”

Aligning ownership with the front office, and, within the next week or two, a head coach, is smart. A necessary step. But the Suns’ group approach to basketball decisions has put them in this situation. And it’s hard to tell whether this just got better or worse.

(Top photo of Brian Gregory in 2021, as South Florida’s head coach: Chris O’Meara, File / AP)

This news was originally published on this post .

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